Hi, The new trees look very realistic ... what program are they made with?

Also, since Normandy trees have large canopies and there are lost of them ... it's possible that game play would suffer it trees were simulated as their real life counterparts. Soldiers and vehicles may get lost from players' view under such large canopies, and the only other option is to turn tree canopies off.

In my opinion the best way CC has represented trees and hedges so far is by: 1. only using trees with canopies (that soldiers / vehicles can actually go under) in very limited quantities and with small canopies (like orchard trees). 2. large hedges (or tree lines) are without real canopies ... and vehicles are not able to move through them, but soldiers can. 3. small hedges allow both soldiers and vehicles to move through, and vehicles crush it to hedge debris.

This still doesn't work well though with forested areas, where many trees with canopies are side by side.

I was thinking of another way to simulate tree canopies in CC, but am not sure if it's possible or if it would be a preferred method. Nevertheless, here is the idea.

Eliminate the use of tree canopies that soldiers / vehicles can go under and not be seen. Therefore, all tree canopies would be part of the bgm (main background image), but when soldiers / vehicles move on to a tree canopy ... they change their appearance from solid multicolored to transparent with a high visibility outline only. Maps would need to have more elements to achieve this ... like: grass under canopy, dirt under canopy, etc. This way you are still able see an outline of units as they move over "under canopy" elements ... instead of the method where units completely disappear. With this new method ... soldiers would also change to 'transparent with a high visibility outline only' when moving through large hedgerows, but still be able to stay solid colored over small hedges. Vehicles would be visually affected the same way, but still not be able to move through large hedgerows. An extra in game option could also be added to toggle on / off tree trunks ... so a player could see a small graphic where the tree trunk is located in the canopy.

Steve McClaire -> RE: trees and hedges (7/29/2012 2:31:05 AM)

The new trees were created from actual photos. Glad you like them.

There will be some changes in terms of seeing units under trees. You will still be able to turn off the tree canopies as before, but there will also be a 'handle' type icon associated with each team. This icon will always be above the trees, and you can click the icon to select the team. We may also make trees go transparent when units are under them, but this is still under discussion.

davidss -> RE: trees and hedges (7/29/2012 8:45:12 AM)

Thanks for the info :) Tree canopies changing to transparent (when units are under) sounds great ... much better than the idea I mentioned above. It would look right if just the tree canopy where the unit was under went transparent, but the other trees around remained in full color and complete in original shape ... maybe that is the way you were already thinking of.

I remember experimenting (with Neil) to get tree canopies to act like roof tops ... it did work, but trees close together and/or overlapping sometimes had an unappealing visual affect where the roof border cut into another tree canopy (when a unit went under a tree and its canopy (roof) came off.